COLOMBIER VILLAGERS ARE CRYING OUT :“WE WANT TO BREATHE IN OUR VILLAGE”
“WE WANT TO BE FREE TO WALK IN THE PATH OF OUR ANCESTORS”
Arbitrarily stripped of our inviolable private property rights that are supposed to be protected by articles 1, 2 and 17 of “La Déclaration Des Droits de l'homme et du Citoyen”, an integral part of the French Republic constitution and article 1 of the European Convention fundamental human property rights and liberty protocol,
We are strangled to death by the State government department of Environment, development and real estate, headed here in St-Martin by a certain Francois VIAL.
While we the people of this little Colombier village are living in a daily fear of a predictable long term period of famine on the island, as a predictable consequence of the corona virus (COVID 19), a worldwide pandemic, causing to our little island an unexpected collapse of our only source of revenue, the tourism industry,
The State government department of environment, development and real estate only initiative is to put into its operational phase a secretly conceived project to kill out the Coralita (bellemexicaine or liane corail) from the hillsides and valley of Colombier, this by injecting a weedkiller deep down in the soil, because it is claimed that the roots of this invasive plant can be found as deep as 6 feet underground.
We are strangled to death by the State government department of Environment, development and real estate, headed here in St-Martin by a certain Francois VIAL.
While we the people of this little Colombier village are living in a daily fear of a predictable long term period of famine on the island, as a predictable consequence of the corona virus (COVID 19), a worldwide pandemic, causing to our little island an unexpected collapse of our only source of revenue, the tourism industry,
The State government department of environment, development and real estate only initiative is to put into its operational phase a secretly conceived project to kill out the Coralita (bellemexicaine or liane corail) from the hillsides and valley of Colombier, this by injecting a weedkiller deep down in the soil, because it is claimed that the roots of this invasive plant can be found as deep as 6 feet underground.
A team of over 20 European experts specially delegated from France to our island is today camping out in the hillsides of our little Colombier village on this mission secretly kept from the knowledge of the people
A criminal project that will inevitably destroy our entire village environment, killing out not only coralita but the entire village environment flora and inevitably pollute all our well.
Soon we will be told just as for the “chloredécone” in Guadeloupe and Martinique, that the agricultural products of the hillsides and valley of our little Colombier village are unfit for human consumption.
What will be the only alternative proposed to us? Sell off our poisoned and depreciated village
ON THE CONTRARY,
We, a majority of Colombier villagers came together under the patronage of the village well known 'Heritage and Ancestral Trails of Colombier' association and have decided to revive the villagers traditional agriculture vocation.
The biggest obstacle to this project was the access to the hillside cultivation land once exploited by our forefathers and abandoned for quite some 60 years.
All the old time footpaths accesses once utilized by our forefathers have been over the years eroded down to underground gutters covered by an impenetrable variety of wild creeping brushwoods.
For this reason we have contacted Gerard Gumbs an earthwork contractor and well equipped for the job. By coincidence, Gerard Gumbs happen to be joint succession owner of one of the properties bordering the same inaccessible footpath or tracks
With the consent of all the bordering property owners, on March 23rd, Gerard GUMBS started cutting a real road respecting the same old time footpaths, only more enlarged with the consent of the bordering property owners.
Mr, Gerard GUMBS had the time to clear and open the old time footpaths trough Spring-garden, Transgutt and Old Joe up to the area of the Heritage & Ancestral Trails Of Colombier Association headquarters.
Mr, Gerard GUMBS had the time to clear and open the old time footpaths trough Spring-garden, Transgutt and Old Joe up to the area of the Heritage & Ancestral Trails Of Colombier Association headquarters.
In the area of Spring-garden, when Gerard GUMBS get to his Joint succession private property, the very spot where his grandparents and father were born, he decided to clear off the perimeter of all the brushwoods (broussailles), this holding a religious precaution not to destroy the main environment flora.
On the morning of Mai 19th, 2020, on the roadwork site, he and his working team were approached by a commando of 5 State civil servants headed by Francois VIAl, head of department of environment, developments and Real Estate for St-Martin and St-Barths, backed by 6 or 7 gendarmes, all with drones flying over the entire area, a scene that was to attract a number of villagers on the site.
Mr. Gerard GUMBS was ordered to put a stop to the roadwork, which he did immediately.
The same morning, the same 5 State government civil servants met with members of the Heritage & Ancestral Trails Of Colombier Association at their headquarters in Old Joe, and they explained in clear terms to them that the initiative to create accessible roads through the hillside of Colombier hillside by cleaning up and enlarging of the old time ancestral footpaths, was not an initiative of an individual in the person of Gerard GUMBS but rather of a majority of Colombier villagers, most of whom are bordering property owners, all gathered under the patronage of the above mentioned association.
Mr. Gerard GUMBS was ordered to put a stop to the roadwork, which he did immediately.
The same morning, the same 5 State government civil servants met with members of the Heritage & Ancestral Trails Of Colombier Association at their headquarters in Old Joe, and they explained in clear terms to them that the initiative to create accessible roads through the hillside of Colombier hillside by cleaning up and enlarging of the old time ancestral footpaths, was not an initiative of an individual in the person of Gerard GUMBS but rather of a majority of Colombier villagers, most of whom are bordering property owners, all gathered under the patronage of the above mentioned association.
This was also made very clearly in Gerard GUMBS contradictory procedural letter of June 16th,2020 addressed to the Préféte Déléguée of St-Martin-St-Barthelemy
YET Gerard GUMBS in the only one, the State government administration has decide to prosecute.
Mr Gerard Gumbs was notified by a June 11th letter From the Préfète that a “procès-verbal” established by Mr. Francois Vial was filed in to the “procureur de la République against him for infraction to the urbanism code
And on June the 25th he was delivered an interruption of work prefectoral decree signed by the Préféte General Secretary, by which he is also notified that a copy of the decree has been again filed in to the “Procureur de la République”against him for the same infractions.
So today Mr. Gerard Gumbs is the only one to be expecting the Public prosecutor order to arraign him before the Correctional Courts.
We want to breathe in our little Colombier village,
We want to breath in our little valley and hillsides, once the most distinctive producer of agriculture and farming products on St-Martin.
We want to breathe in our little village the once agriculture hub of St-Martin (le terroir agricole de St-Martin):
We want to be free to revive the agriculture vocation of our villagers,
We want to be free to return to agriculture exploitation of our private properties and as in the old days supply anew our island people with a much needed natural cultivated products: Local Vegetables, local food crops, local fruits, livestock such as cattle, mules, goats, hogs, local meat and poultry.....
We want to be free to produce anew all those traditional natural cultivated product that have once and for centuries made of our little Colombier village a very distinctive hub, unfortunately, from the beginning of the 1960's, with the rapid development of tourism on the island, was quickly abandoned and we have become entirely dependent on imported food.
WE WANT TO BE FREE TO WALK IN THE TRACKS OF OUR FOREFATHERS
We want to be free to revive the agriculture vocation of our villagers,
We want to be free to return to agriculture exploitation of our private properties and as in the old days supply anew our island people with a much needed natural cultivated products: Local Vegetables, local food crops, local fruits, livestock such as cattle, mules, goats, hogs, local meat and poultry.....
We want to be free to produce anew all those traditional natural cultivated product that have once and for centuries made of our little Colombier village a very distinctive hub, unfortunately, from the beginning of the 1960's, with the rapid development of tourism on the island, was quickly abandoned and we have become entirely dependent on imported food.
WE WANT TO BE FREE TO WALK IN THE TRACKS OF OUR FOREFATHERS
WE ARE STRANGLED TO DEATH IN OUR LITTLE VILLAGE!
WE WANT TO BREATH!
WE WANT TO BREATH!
Written by Léopold BALY, a son of the soil of Colombier
